We sometimes say that punishment should be proportioned to sin. There is a sense in which that is most true and just. It is most true and just with regard to all punishment that comes from the outside. It is a law which must be obeyed by the parent, the magistrate, and every wronged or offended man. But this is by no means the limit of the question. The punishment which a mom inflicts upon himself is infinitely severer than any punishment that can be inflicted upon him. “A wounded spirit who can bear.” You remember how you ill-treated that poor child now dead; you saw the anguish of his soul, and he besought you and you would not hear; and now a great distress is come upon you and your bread is very bitter. Who is punishing you? Not the magistrate. Who then? You are punishing yourself. You cannot forgive yourself. The child touches you at every corner, speaks to you in every dream, moans in every cold wind, and lays its thin pale hand upon you in the hours of riot and excitement. You see that ill-used child everywhere; a shadow on the fair horizon; a background to the face of every other child; a ghastly contrast to everything lovely and fair. Time cannot quench the fire. Events cannot throw into dim distance this tragic fact. It surrounds you, mocks you, defies you, and under its pressure you know the meaning of the words, which no mere grammarian can understand, “The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment.”—PARKER.
